net_peerCount - Ethereum

Example code for the net_peerCount JSON RPC method. Сomplete guide on how to use net_peerCount JSON RPC in GetBlock Web3 documentation.

This method returns the number of peers currently connected to the node's P2P layer, as a hex-encoded integer. Managed RPC endpoints commonly aggregate this across a load-balanced fleet or return the peer count of the specific backend node handling the request.

Parameters

This method takes no parameters.

Request

cURL

curl --location --request POST 'https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "net_peerCount",
    "params": [],
    "id": "getblock.io"
}'

Axios

example.js

const axios = require('axios');

const response = await axios.post('https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/', {
    jsonrpc: '2.0',
    method: 'net_peerCount',
    params: [],
    id: 'getblock.io'
}, {
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
});

console.log(response.data.result);

Request

example.py

import requests

response = requests.post(
    'https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/',
    headers={'Content-Type': 'application/json'},
    json={
        'jsonrpc': '2.0',
        'method': 'net_peerCount',
        'params': [],
        'id': 'getblock.io'
    }
)

print(response.json())

Rust

example.rs

use reqwest::Client;
use serde_json::{json, Value};

#[tokio::main]
async fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let client = Client::new();
    
    let response = client
        .post("https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/")
        .header("Content-Type", "application/json")
        .json(&json!({
            "jsonrpc": "2.0",
            "method": "net_peerCount",
            "params": [],
            "id": "getblock.io"
        }))
        .send()
        .await?
        .json::<Value>()
        .await?;
    
    println!("Result: {}", response["result"]);
    Ok(())
}

Response

{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "id": "getblock.io",
    "result": "0x40"
}

Response Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
jsonrpc	string	JSON-RPC protocol version ("2.0")
id	string	Request identifier matching the request
result	string	Hex-encoded number of active peers

Use Cases

• Node Isolation Detection: Detect when a node has dropped below a peer-count threshold indicating a network problem

• Fleet Health Monitoring: Track peer count distribution across a managed node fleet for capacity planning

• Self-Hosted Node Diagnostics: Diagnose connectivity issues when a node stops syncing

Error Handling

Error Code	Message	Description
-32603	Internal error	Node's peer table could not be read

Web3 Integration

Ethers.js

ethers-example.js

import { ethers } from 'ethers';

const provider = new ethers.JsonRpcProvider('https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/');

const peerCountHex = await provider.send('net_peerCount', []);
const peerCount = parseInt(peerCountHex, 16);
console.log('Peer count:', peerCount);

Viem

viem-example.js

import { createPublicClient, http } from 'viem';
import { mainnet } from 'viem/chains';

const client = createPublicClient({
    chain: mainnet,
    transport: http('https://shared.eu-central-1.getblock.io/<ACCESS-TOKEN>/'),
});

const peerCountHex = await client.request({ method: 'net_peerCount' });
const peerCount = parseInt(peerCountHex, 16);
console.log('Peer count:', peerCount);